Many Don’t Want to Hear About Wearing a Hearing Aid

AigarsR/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Although some feel that there’s a stigma attached to wearing a hearing aid, a lot of people could benefit from using the device.

Dr. Piers Dawes of the University of Manchester’s Audiology and Deafness research group conducted a study on how well people hear speech when there’s background noise.

After observing 160,000 people between the ages of 40 and 69, Dawes discovered that 10.7 percent have a real problem making out what’s being said when there’s noise going on elsewhere.

Unfortunately, a mere 2.1 percent wore a hearing aid to correct the problem. Dawes explained that those who don’t might not think their hearing is compromised or figure a hearing aid won’t help them much.

Kevin Munro, who also teaches at the University of Manchester, goes on to says that “there still seems to be a stigma attached to wearing a hearing aid, where as there is little stigma now associated with vision loss and wearing” glasses.